(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a composite fabric having superior cut and puncture resistance, and more particularly to a fabric made of a combination of layers of stainless steel mesh and layers of woven, para-aramid fibers and the use of that composite fabric in constructing protective garments.
(2) Description of Related Art
Fabrics woven from para-aramid synthetic fibers such as, but not limited to, Kevlar™ display exceptional resistance to ballistic puncture and have been used successfully to construct light weight, bullet proof body armor. The materials are, however, only of average resistance to cut and slash attacks and to puncture by needles. The para-aramid based body armor, therefore, provides good protection against gun attacks, but is not particularly effective against knife or needle threats.
What is needed is a light-weight fabric that provides a combination of high resistance to ballistic puncture, cut and slash attacks and puncture attacks, and which can be readily used to fabricate light weight, flexible garments such as, but not limited to, gloves and attack proof vests.
The relevant prior art includes:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,212 issued to Andresen on Jun. 24, 2003 entitled “Protective garment” that describes a protective garment for protection of body parts against cuts or puncture wounds comprising an inner layer, a protective layer and an outer layer, the protective layer being composed of a wire mesh of woven metal wires, the thickness of the metal wires being between 0.03 mm and 0.20 mm and the apertures in the wire mesh being between 0.05 mm and 0.45 mm.
US Patent Application 20080307553 submitted by Terrance Jbeiliet al. published on Dec. 18, 2008 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Protecting against Ballistic Projectiles” that describes a composite material comprising a multitude of masses and fibers supported on a flexible substrate arranged in a manner to absorb energy from a ballistic projectile and thereby protect persons or property from ballistic injury or damage. An array of small, tough disc-like masses are suspended in a three dimensional cradle of high-tensile elastomeric fibers such that energy from an incoming ballistic projectile is first imparted to one or more masses and the motion of the masses are restrained by tensile strain of elastomeric fibers substantially in the direction of travel of the incoming projectile. The projectile is eventually decelerated to harmless velocity through a combination of transfer of momentum to the masses and the elastic and plastic tensile deformation of the fibers. One or more layers of the composite material can be assembled to form body protective armor (“bullet-proof vest”) or property protective armor, the number and characteristics of the layers being adjusted according to the specific ballistic threat anticipated.
Various implementations are known in the art, but fail to address all of the problems solved by the invention described herein. Various embodiments of this invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.